VOLCANIC REACTION

After a short run of intimate warm-up gigs, Gorillaz made headlines with their set at the Coachella festival in California on April 18. For this appearance, the production was rehearsed at Centre Staging in Burbank where XL provided the video kit and Smoother Smyth’s Delicate Productions supplied sound, lighting, rigging and crew. “Smoother is a great guy and Delicate are one of my preferred U.S. rental sources. With their West Coast ‘one stop shop’ operation being so close to Center Staging they were the obvious choice of supplier. Traditionally, sound for Blur and Gorillaz has been looked after in the U.S. by Eighth Day, but on an unrehearsed production and also a one-off, we wanted to have someone close at hand for all those last minute requests and amendments.” 

Audio

With so many musicians coming and going onstage, the job of mixing the Gorillaz show would appear to be a job and a half. FOH engineer Matt Butcher attempts to simplify the task as much as possible, and his weapon of choice is the DiGiCo D5 console. He commented: “It’s the perfect desk as far as I’m concerned, although the SD7 will be the next step for me. The layout is great; it’s nice and compact, and the groups of eight allow me to do several things all at once. I’m not automating much but when I do, the snapshots are good for getting the mix ballpark.” A Blur veteran from the 1994 Parklife tour onwards, Butcher was working with 102 mic lines plus comms channels.  “The desk is completely full and the stage box looks hilarious!” he grinned. “Having two drum kits doesn’t help, of course, but my tech, Basil Fernley, has really helped to ‘stretch’ the D5. “I’ve not been able to indulge in luxuries like snare bottom mics and second kick drum mics. We changed to Shure Beta 56As for the snares which has given me what I need without getting silly with the EQ.”

The large amount of open mics across the stage would have posed a serious spillage problem for Butcher if not for the muting system he employed. “This was where the automated snapshots were really crucial whereas the faders are pretty much on the fly. Then we have the 16 VCA groups which enable me to mix the meat, the potatoes and a large dollop of mustard on the side in large chunks. It’s two hours of pure concentration for me and think I’d be in trouble without those VCAs!” Was he spinning any special effects into the mix? “There are quite a few echo and delay cues, especially on Damon’s voice. I have an outboard rack with a TC D2 and a couple of Lexicon PCM81s in it, plus I’m using some of the internal effects for reverbs and delay for snare drums. “When I was using a Midas Heritage on the fi rst shows we did, I’d mess around with the tone generator and echo, along with guitar pedals to get some weird lo-fi effects. It was all very analogue and suited what we were doing and I’ve tried it with the D5, but I don’t really have as much time to play with these days!” Although Butcher described his microphone selection as “very standard”, one departure from the norm was a Shure 527B CB-style            mic with a modifi ed push-to-talk switch that was used for distorted vocal sounds on songs such ‘Stylo’ and ‘Rhinestone Eyes’. “I’m a great            believer in getting the right sound at source,” said Butcher. Monitor engineer Dave Guerin also had his hands full with masses of inputs and mixes on a DiGiCo SD7 “Mixing monitors is always a tricky job but on this it’s like looking after four or five bands simultaneously,” said Guerin. “At the last count, I had 40 mono outputs in use and 12 stereo outputs. There are 27 different in ear mixes onstage covering strings, percussion, BVs and click tracks — it’s going on everywhere. I’d normally give the strings a generic mix but the SD7 allows for them to each have their own mix, so that’s what they’ve got.” The hard-wired IEM systems were Shure P6HWs, while Sennheiser G2 300ew was the wireless choice. Also in service were d&b M4 wedges run in passive mode and Q7s as side fills. Guerin claimed that no other console that he knew of would have been able to accommodate the sheer volume of activity. “There wouldn’t be enough graphics on the D5 and none of the rival desks would have enough inputs or outputs without some clever bussing. “I wanted to keep everything straightforward within the one desk and the SD7 was the only one capable of being structured for what’s needed here. It took me nine hours to program this gig into the SD7 and as I hadn’t used the desk before, I went to DiGiCo’s HQ to ensure it all went smoothly.”

Lighting

Although Croft originally specified Vari*Lites, he finally chose a heap of Martin MACs, with18 MAC 2000 Profi les and 18 MAC 700 Washes throughout the whole rig. “All the fixtures have had to be very carefully placed because I can’t interfere with the screen and have too many blinding lights focused over it, therefore everything is tucked away around the sides.” Key lighting was provided by 12 ETC Source Fours in the Thomas/Tomcat trussing. “Everyone in the band has a 10° on them while the backing vocalists and the Syrian orchestra players have 26° fi xtures, which we ride in and out depending on who’s doing what. We also have some Source Four 10° specials reserved for Paul Simonon and Mick Jones who occasionally step into some shards of light.” Croft controlled the show from a first generation grandMA full-size console. “It’s a good desk for this kind of show. I like to stack up the cues and run theatre scenes for every song,” he said. “We were toying with the idea of using an Avo Pearl Expert, which would have worked well enough. But because we’re touring around festivals and using other people’s gear, it’s important that I have a desk that can cope easily with the cloning of fixtures and differing sizes of rig. In my experience, the grandMA is probably the most flexible desk in situations where there can be so many variables.” Six Thomas 4-lite Molefays, a pair of Pani HMI follow spots and DF50 hazers were also included in the rig and although LEDs were used inside the letter light boxes, Croft didn’t specify any LED fixtures as part of his design

Excerpts taken from TPI Article May 2010

By Clive Jones

ProSound News (January 2010) - It sounded like a rock fan’s fever dream: a supergroup created out of musical interest instead of career slumps, barnstorming across the U.S. with little publicity, playing only brand-new songs no one had ever heard before. Oh, and the parent bands of the group were Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age and, er, Led Zeppelin.

It wasn’t a dream, though; it was the fall U.S. tour for Them Crooked Vultures, a ven- ture that includes Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on bass, the Foos’ Dave Ghrol on drums, the Queens’ Josh Homme on vocals and guitar, and cult act Eleven’s Alain Johannes on guitar. The tour itself was as underground as it could be, considering the players involved... and the fact that they were selling out 3,500-seat rooms without having officially released any music. Sporting ticket prices that were just high enough to keep out the merely curious, the audiences were packed with the fervidly faithful, and they got what they came for: hard rock with some honest- to-God heft to it. It was heavy.

Carrying that weight across the country was Delicate Productions (Camarillo, CA), which provided FOH control gear and a full monitor setup for the 16-date jaunt. Jockeying the consoles were FOH engineer Hutch (Patrick Hutchinson, pictured at right with TCV singer, Josh Homme) and monitor man Ian Beveridge (below).

It’s old concert biz wisdom that fans come out to hear music they know and that they want the songs to sound as close to the familiar recorded versions as possible. Since the band’s self-titled album wasn’t out yet, there was no need to carbon-copy the CD, but that didn’t mean it was a sonic free-for-all either.

Sitting aside his Midas Heritage 3000 at FOH, Hutch explained, “I guess it’s a bit of a luxury, but all these musicians are very specific about what they did on the record and we’ve repeated it, tried to duplicate the important things. Some of it is impossible, I think, but the nuts and bolts and important information? We definitely try to replicate.”

In an age where digital desks are the norm for FOH positions, the Midas desk on hand was used to achieve that familiar analog sound: “I think if you look at how the band recorded themselves and the instruments they used, it seems appropri- ate; it seems like the right desk for the job,” said Hutch.

Keeping that old-school ethos in mind, there were plenty of outboard units at the FOH position as well, including more than half a dozen Empirical Labs EL8s (“You can never have enough Distressors”), an SPL Transient Designer, a classic Tech 21 SansAmp PSA 1.1, and even an old DeltaLab Effectron II.

All kinds of magic out here,” Hutch chuckled. “That’s why it’s called magic— yes, some cool shit, like my old Effectron. It’s really out of date—an old piece of dinosaur gear that buzzes and shorts out all the time, but it’s got a beautiful pitch when you crank up the repeats and the speed. We have a really nice sweeping control, and it’s got a cool flange for effect in it. It’s a piece of garbage, but I love the sound of it. Best part? It has this broken button that jams and you can get this beautiful vocal doubler out of it. We’ve had this since Josh, the singer, had a band called Kyuss, an incredi- ble rock band that I mixed sound for, and we’ve always used it as his doubler.”

Miking for the tour was tackled with a variety of microphones ranging from the expected names—Sennheiser, Shure, Audix—to more unusual picks, like studio mics from Blue Microphones. “Whatever is the right mic, hopefully we have on there,” said Hutch. “We’re still feeling it out really; it’s kind of a work in progress. They’re still experimenting, so we’re just trying to fol- low their lead.”

Over at stageside, Ian Beveridge oversaw a Yamaha PM5D, which fed sound to a slew of d&b Audiotechnik M2 wedges and Martin Audio PA used as sidefills; in-ears were out on the TCV tour. Asked if any band members were requesting unusual mixes, Beveridge laughed, “There’s nothing unusual about unusual. Everybody I’ve ever worked for has always had an interesting mix, but the thing to do is learn what they want and then make that happen. Everybody’s different, so get to know your people—figure out what’s normal for them and then go from there. And again, it’s all evolving because this band is so new. They’re going to need to hear different things at different times, and then the focus [of what they need] might change onto something else, so it evolves.”

The two engineers have known each other for years, but working on the TCV world tour, which starts up again later this month in Australia, marks the first time that they’ve collaborated on a production. For Hutch, the journey of becoming a concert engineer began in high school: “Friends picked up instruments, and I was Theatre Guy in school—always wanted to do the drama thing, always liked the production, putting up the lights and dressing the stage and whatever it took, so [going into live sound] just made sense—it’s just like a con- tinuation of that. Over the years, I’ve mixed Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Screaming Trees, the Cramps, Taj Mahal, did a turn with Hole, Wolfmother— all kinds of people.”

Beveridge, who has been behind the monitor desk for acts like Green Day, Weezer, the Lemonheads and Hole, has a similar story, albeit one that’s slightly macabre: “I played in bands, and I used to dig graves during summer vacation at school. So, I dug enough graves that I could buy the first 4-track cassette machine in Scotland, and that was the start of record- ing everything and anyone we could per- suade to stand in front of a microphone. Wanted to get out of the grave digging— it’s a dying business!”

Them Crooked Vultures’ live show is still a work in progress; the band made its live debut in August and began its first world tour less than two months later. As a result, the engineers, audiences and even the group itself are still discovering exactly what TCV live actually is. There was no night more fraught with discovery, however, than the band’s live debut, last August in Chicago: “I gotta say, the first one was pret- ty exciting, man,” said Hutch, “because you just didn’t know how it was going to go, but that opening night, it was amazing. It’s awesome to watch people as a group hear something for the first time, all sharing a brand-new experience.” Whether that was the audience or the band in front of them, he didn’t say.

Article originally published in ProSound News, January 2010 issue. Re-printed by permission. 

By Bill Evans

Las Vegas (January 13, 2010) - Danny Leake runs a company in Chicago called Urban Guerilla Engineers, through which he runs, as he says, "all my sound stuff" - both studio and live work. For almost two decades, that live work has included FOH duties with the legendary Stevie Wonder.

After seeing a transcendent Stevie set at the Hall of Fame shows in New York City, something happened that I have never had happen before in the better part of a decade that I have been at the helm of FOH magazine.

I did not meet Danny in New York. I got an email from him a couple of weeks after the show. You see, there had been what could have been a catastrophic failure at the show. It was the kind of thing that, in the hands of less capable and level-headed pros, could have meant the end of the show. But cooler heads and a good backup plan got things up and going. I wrote about it in my blog on ProAudioSpace as well as in the November issue of FOH, "Invisible People," Editor's Note, page 4).

And out of nowhere comes an e-mail. From Danny. It begins, "I've just received my November issue of  and I see you want to know what happened during Stevie's performance." And then he goes on to tell me exactly what happened, and how they fixed it, and to heap praise on the sound company. "The Firehouse guys were magnificent. They got the stereo TV audio up on the master console and put that in the house. I gave people "heads up" on what was happening next. Stevie sings on one of three mikes, the mike being determined by what song he's singing, and he has a very non-scripted show. That, in addition to guest artists. It was touch-and-go, but the show went on."

As I told Danny later, I was totally blown away. In all the time I have done this and hundreds of interviews - including at least a dozen after a high-profile audio failure of some kind - this is the one and only time that someone took the time to completely and honestly come out and say, "Here's what happened."

As good luck would have it, Stevie - who is not touring right now - was doing a one-off in Vegas a couple of weeks after that email. I arranged to meet Danny before the show at the MGM (where they where on a Martin rig supplied by Smoother Smyth and Delicate Productions) and talk a bit. Some excerpts from the interview appear here and the entire session is available as video online at both www.fohonline.com and ProAudioSpace.

FOH: How did you move from the studio to doing live sound?

Danny Leake: It's a funny thing, I had been in the studio for years and years. I was working with Johnny Gill (former New Edition) and he said to me, "I don't have a front of house guy, would you come out on the road and mix for us?" I thought "how hard could it be?"

The first hit was at the Tokyo Dome. It was a festival-type situation with Hall and Oates and the Doobie Brothers, who were all big acts at the time. Everybody is talking about things and I had no idea what they were talking about-I was like a deer in the headlights. Somehow I pulled it off, but when the crowd, you know they said "Johnny Gil!" and 65,000 people went nuts. I became addicted to that. I never got that in the studio.

What about the Stevie gig?

I got a call saying that Stevie wanted to go out with an orchestra. I had done the Chicago Symphony, and they asked, "You know something about orchestras, don't you? How do you make this orchestra work with a live band?" And off the top of my head - I was joking - I said, "Sure, you just put a mic on everybody, drop it down to the console and call it a day." And they hired me. And I thought, "Oh, now I have to make it work."

Being inexperienced, you know - most guys have a separate orchestra console, but I had no concept of that. I couldn't imagine anything else other than mixing my own show. So I said I could mix the band and the orchestra, and they thought, "Great. We don't have to hire another engineer." So I had two consoles-one for the band and one for the orchestra. Then Stevie said, "You know, I kind of miss my synthesizers," so I ended up doing the Rick Wakeman thing with three consoles. I had all of the rhythm on my right, keyboards and vocals in front of me and the orchestra on my left.

It was a trip. But it worked out, and I've been around for 18 years now.

How have you found the transition from analog to digital on the live side?

Well, I have been doing digital in the studio since 1979. I cut the first multi-track digital session ever recorded in Chicago. You can make yourself sound good on digital, but digital is not the same as analog, and there are certain extra things you need to do to make sure things stay cool. I know how to make myself sound good on digital, and for me it is all about the sound.

I love the sound of a Midas. I started with one, and then Stevie kept adding inputs, so instead of a sidecar, I got a second Midas. and sure enough, I ended up with 93 inputs. But that and all the racks take up a lot of room, so management asked me if I could shrink it down. Since the two monitor guys were on D5s, I gave them a shot.

I like the way the D5 lays out. I was able to set it up, so for me, it flows very much the way an analog console would."

Originally published in Front of House Magazine. Reprinted by permission.

Camarillo, CA (January 23, 2010) - As part of an expanding marketing program, Delicate Productions, one of the nation's leading full-service live sound, lighting and multimedia production companies, has launched a new website. The primary functions of the new site are to provide clients with easy access to critical information and become a communication hub for Delicate Productions' growing community. The company's rich legacy will also be highlighted on the site with articles, reviews and memorabilia from over 25 years of successful, world-class events. The website and a new corporate logo was designed by Seattle-based 3dB Creative with account management by Elliott Communications and project direction by Delicate Production's Jason Alt.

"We wanted to present a unique aesthetic that complimented the no-nonsense, client-oriented nature of Delicate Productions' approach," commented Sara Elliott of Elliott Communications. "The completed site has an extremely fresh, straight-forward design with easy, user-oriented navigation. It reflects the sense of excitement in a Delicate Productions event while allowing users to find the information they need quickly. We'll be adding considerably more archival information over the next few months so navigational efficiency was a key element for us."

The Delicate Productions website was built in XHTML utilizing the Expression Engine™ content management system (CMS) and Java Script for improved performance on mobile internet devices. Contents of the site are easily shared via social media networks to enable viral promotions, encourage external links and aid in search engine optimization. An integrated eNewsletter and social media marketing campaign will be deployed to drive inbound traffic.

For more information on 3dB Creative, go to:   www.3dbcreative.com  

Los Angeles, CA (December 2, 2009) - It was a true British invasion of audio equipment when Las Vegas, NV-based group The Killers recently toured North America, with primary sound reinforcement equipment coming from Martin Audio and DiGiCo.

Delicate Productions of Los Angeles, CA provided equipment for the U.S. leg of the tour, also working with British sound company Capital Sound, a partnership that sees both companies working together on two continents.

Alan Behr, Audio Crew Chief and Delicate Productions employee, explains, “We have a very similar inventory. In the past, a lot of the acts that enjoy this level of production over in Europe would come over to the US and find very similar attitudes and compatible people with Delicate. We work a lot of shows the same ways. It’s a great relationship to have – hopefully we can do a lot more work with them.”

Behr managed a crew of audio personnel that included Front of House Engineer James Gebhard, Monitor Engineer Clarke Laplante, Audio Techs BJ Hemmingsen, Fumi Okazaki and Harm Schopman, who would later replace Laplante mixing monitors.

Main PA 

The system featured a DiGiCo SD7 digital mixing console at Front of House and a DiGiCo D5 at stage left for monitor mixing.

“Due to the number of inputs (80 in total), there are two stage racks for each console and two Whirlwind snakes,” notes Behr. “In order to cut down on setup time, the four stage racks and the two snake splits were combined into one rack.

“All the cabling is done every day, and all that remains is to pull out the feed from the stage. Since that was already done, we decided to put all the monitor amplifiers in the same frame.”

It allowed them to roll out everything with all console inputs and outputs ready-formed together. “When you pull out the loom for the stage, it sits right in the tray on top of that cart. It speeds things up substantially,” Behr adds.

The main PA was headed by Martin Audio W8L Longbow line arrays, touring the U.S. for the first time. The main hang consisted of 24 W8L modules, while low frequencies were handled by 24 flown Martin W8LS subwoofers.

Downfill was supplied by Martin W8LCD, 4 boxes per side, with a side hang of up to 24 Martin W8LC. Everything was powered by Martin MA4.2 amplifiers.

Gebhard explained his choice of touring with the Longbow system, describing his history with Martin products, “We’ve mainly used Martin LC loudspeakers in Europe, but because we’re playing a lot of sheds in North America, we would have had to use delays, or switch to Longbow. I’ve really come to love this system after they fine-tuned it.”

For his front of house console choice, Gebhard has been a fan of DiGiCo digital consoles, using them since 2003. “It’s just an amazing console, the SD7. With 80 channels coming off stage, the only other option was Digidesign’s Profile, but I personally prefer DiGiCo consoles. We did consider going analog at one point, but this turned out to be the only logical choice.”

Microphone selection was handled by both Gebhard and Laplante, with the two engineers relying on their years of experience to come up with the best combination for the artist as well as their own needs.

“The two of us work together to determine what’s working best. Many manufacturers are represented in the system,” Gephard said. “Audio-Technica features heavily into the drum kit, Shure on all the guitars, Shure on all the vocals, some Electro-Voice mics, almost everybody.

“We even tried Sennheiser mics for singer Brandon Flowers, but he’s always preferred Shure mics. It’s just his comfort factor. We did finally get him to try a wireless microphone as his backup.”

Monitor World

As mentioned before, a DiGiCo D5 console is utilized for monitors, which included a variety of in-ear personal monitors and wedges. Fourteen d&b audiotechnik M2 monitor wedges were selected. Sidefill needs were met by Martin W8LC/WSX18X line arrays.

“Almost everybody has wedges,” stated Behr. “The keyboardist/guitarist and saxophonist don’t use wedges. The drummer is on ears while also using a wedge and a subwoofer. The lead guitarist uses ears and wedges, and the singer is only on wedges and sidefills.”

The Killers Tour Equipment List

Front of House:
DiGiCo SD7
Dolby Lake processing

Main Hang: 
24 Martin W8L
24 Martin W8LS flown subs
8 Martin W8LCD downfill

Side Hang: 
24 Martin W8LC

Amplification: 
Martin MA4.2

Monitors: 
DiGiCo D5
14 d&b audiotechnik M2
4 Martin W8LC/WS218X

Jeff MacKay is managing editor of Live Sound International magazine.

Originally published by Pro Sound Web, Reproduced by permission. 

Camarillo, CA – Delicate Productions, a full-service event production company, is opening a new South San Francisco office and warehouse to support clients in the Northern California area. George Edwards, a veteran of the audio industry has been named Account Executive and will oversee day-to-day operations of the new office. The new office and warehouse marks Delicate Production’s first geographic expansion outside Los Angeles.

Edwards’s joins Delicate Productions with more than 25 years experience in audio, event production and management.

“We are excited to not only expand our reach into the Northern California market but to have the talents and expertise of George Edwards,” said Smoother Smyth, CEO of Delicate Productions. “He has the knowledge, experience and relationships to help lead Delicate Productions in this new period of growth.

“Delicate Productions is the gold standard of event production and I’m thrilled to be joining such a highly respected and innovative company,” Edwards said.

Article originally published in MIX Online, October 2009. Reprinted by permission.